JP2006087182A - Polymer actuator device and its driving method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a polymer actuator driving unit which improves the accuracy in positioning of a polymer actuator and besides performs positioning at high speed. <P>SOLUTION: This polymer actuator device is equipped with a polymer actuator 1, an actuator 2 which drives the polymer actuator 1, and a control unit 9 which controls the actuator 2. The polymer actuator is provided with a sensor 4 which measures the quantity of expansion and contraction of itself. A rectifying circuit 3 which corrects the nonlinearity of the quantity of expansion and contraction to the drive voltage of the polymer actuator is provided between the control unit 9 and the actuator 2. A driving method is one which feeds back the quantity of expansion and contraction acquired from the sensor 4 to the control unit 9, and corrects the quantity of expansion and contraction by the correcting circuit 3 to make it a drive voltage command 6. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a polymer actuator device that causes mechanical deformation due to a chemical change.

  As a conventional polymer actuator device, a device that drives by applying a drive voltage proportional to a target expansion / contraction amount to the polymer actuator has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

FIG. 4 shows a conventional polymer actuator device. In FIG. 4, a driver 2 is connected to the polymer actuator 1 attached to the housing 7, and an expansion / contraction amount command 5 is input to the driver 2 from a controller 9 that controls expansion / contraction driving of the polymer actuator 1. A driving voltage proportional to the expansion / contraction amount command 5 is applied to the polymer actuator 1 from the driver 2 to the polymer actuator 1. In this way, the polymer actuator 1 was driven.
JP-A-2000-83389 (Claim 1, Claim 4)

  The conventional polymer actuator driving device applies the driving voltage of the polymer actuator in proportion to the target expansion / contraction amount, so that the driving voltage of the polymer actuator and the expansion / contraction amount are not proportional to each other. However, there is a problem that positioning accuracy is deteriorated because the amount of expansion and contraction cannot be controlled accurately. In addition, an appropriate amount of displacement required for positioning cannot be calculated, and time is required for positioning.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and improves the positioning accuracy for a type of polymer actuator in which the driving voltage and expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator are not in a proportional relationship, and positioning at high speed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a driving device that performs the above and a driving method thereof.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows.

The invention according to claim 1 is a polymer actuator device comprising a polymer actuator, a driver that drives the polymer actuator, and a controller that controls the driver. A sensor for measuring the amount of expansion and contraction is provided, and a correction circuit for correcting the nonlinearity of the amount of expansion and contraction with respect to the drive voltage of the polymer actuator is provided between the controller and the driver.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the sensor is attached to a casing together with the polymer actuator, and the tip of the sensor and the tip of the polymer actuator are fixed by a fixed body.
The invention according to claim 3 includes a polymer actuator, a driver that drives the polymer actuator, and a controller that controls the driver, and sends a drive command from the controller to the driver. In the driving method of the polymer actuator device for driving the polymer actuator, the polymer actuator is provided with a sensor for measuring the amount of expansion / contraction of the polymer actuator, and the amount of expansion / contraction acquired from the sensor is fed back to the controller. And a correction circuit provided between the driver and the driver corrects the amount of expansion and contraction of the polymer actuator with respect to the drive voltage, thereby obtaining a drive voltage command.
The invention according to claim 4 is that the non-linearity correction is applied to the polymer actuator while changing the drive voltage to change the expansion and contraction of the polymer actuator from the minimum value to the maximum value. The obtained actual expansion / contraction amount is compared with the driving voltage, and the correction data is stored in the correction data storage device provided in the correction circuit.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the non-linearity correction of the polymer actuator is performed on the amount of expansion / contraction based on data obtained by interpolating correction data stored in the correction data storage device by a moving average method. The obtained driving voltage is obtained.
Is.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the non-linearity of the driving voltage and the expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator is corrected by the correction circuit, the positioning accuracy of the polymer actuator can be improved and the positioning can be performed at high speed. .
According to the second aspect of the invention, since the sensor tip and the tip of the polymer actuator are fixed by the fixed body, the expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator can be obtained with certainty. It is possible to improve positioning at high speed.
According to the invention described in claim 3, since the non-linearity of the driving voltage and the expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator is corrected by the correction circuit, the positioning accuracy of the polymer actuator can be improved and the positioning can be performed at high speed. .
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the correction data can be created by changing the expansion and contraction of the polymer actuator from the minimum value to the maximum value, so that the correction data can be acquired quickly and easily.
According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the correction data stored in the correction data storage device for the non-linearity of the driving voltage and the expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator is corrected based on the data interpolated by the moving average method or the like. Therefore, the positioning accuracy of the polymer actuator can be improved and positioning can be performed at high speed.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a polymer actuator driving apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 3 is a correction circuit for correcting the nonlinearity of the expansion / contraction amount with respect to the driving voltage of the polymer actuator 1, 4 is a sensor for measuring the expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator 1, and 6 is input from the correction circuit 3 to the driver 2. The drive voltage command 8 is a fixed body for fixing the tip of the polymer actuator 1 and the tip of the sensor 4. Other reference numerals are the same as in the conventional example, and are omitted.
As the polymer actuator 1, an electronic conductive type was used, and as the sensor 4, a direct acting eddy current displacement sensor was used.

  The present invention is different from Patent Document 1 in that when the relationship between the driving voltage of the polymer actuator 1 and the expansion / contraction amount is non-linear, the expansion / contraction of the polymer actuator 1 is driven by a driving voltage proportional to the expansion / contraction amount command 5. Instead of being applied to the polymer actuator 1 by the device 2, the drive voltage command 6 corrected by the correction circuit 3 is output to the driver 2 and an appropriate drive voltage is applied from the driver 2 to the polymer actuator 1. .

Next, the correction method of this embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a driving voltage correction method in the polymer actuator driving apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 3 shows an example of the correction data 10 in the correction data storage device 32 in the correction circuit 3 of this embodiment.
First, correction data from the correction data storage device 32 is acquired. The correction operation circuit 31 of the correction circuit 3 outputs the drive voltage command 6 without correcting the expansion / contraction amount command 5. Next, the expansion / contraction amount command 5 is input to drive the polymer actuator 1. At this time, the actual expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator 1 is acquired from the sensor 4 and stored in the correction data storage device 32 as the correction data 10 of the expansion / contraction amount command 5 with respect to the drive voltage command 6. The correction data 10 is created by changing this operation from the minimum value to the maximum value of the expansion / contraction amount command 5. By making the change amount of the expansion / contraction amount command 5 fine at this time, it is possible to create correction data 10 that enables positioning with higher accuracy and higher speed. Finally, the correction calculation circuit 31 of the correction circuit 3 sets the state in which the drive voltage command 6 corrected for the expansion / contraction amount command 5 based on the data of the correction data storage device 32 is output, and the correction of the correction data storage device 32 The acquisition of data 10 is completed.

Next, the expansion / contraction amount command 5 is corrected. The expansion / contraction amount command 5 is input from the controller 9 to the correction circuit 3 (FIG. 2, S1). Next, an appropriate drive voltage command 6 for the expansion / contraction command 5 is obtained by the correction calculation circuit 31 based on the correction data 10 in the correction data storage device 32 (S2 in FIG. 2). At this time, since the correction data 10 in the correction data storage device 32 is discrete data, the correction calculation circuit 31 obtains the interpolation value 11 by interpolation such as a moving average method, and the drive voltage command 6 for the expansion / contraction command 5 is calculated. The This interpolation method is not particularly limited to the moving average method. Specifically, when the expansion / contraction amount command 5a shown in FIG. 3 is input to the correction circuit 3, the correction value calculation circuit 31 obtains the interpolation value 11 based on the data in the correction data storage device 32, and the corrected drive voltage command 6a. Is required. Similarly, for the expansion / contraction amount command 5b, the drive voltage command 6b is obtained by the correction calculation circuit 31 based on the data in the correction data storage device 32. Finally, a drive voltage is applied from the driver 2 to the polymer actuator 1 in accordance with the drive voltage command 6 obtained by the correction circuit 3 (FIG. 2, S3).
As described above, the actual expansion / contraction amount of the polymer actuator 1 from the sensor 4 is fed back to the controller 9, and the control is performed in consideration of the deviation from the expansion / contraction amount command 5, thereby positioning with higher accuracy and higher speed. It becomes possible.

  In this embodiment, a linear motion type eddy current displacement sensor is used as the sensor 4, but any type of sensor may be used as long as it can detect the linear motion direction.

The block diagram of the polymer actuator apparatus which shows one Example of this invention The flowchart which shows the procedure of the correction method of the drive voltage of this invention Graph showing an example of correction data of the present invention Configuration diagram showing a conventional polymer actuator device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Polymer actuator 2 Driver 3 Correction circuit 31 Correction calculation circuit 32 Correction data storage device 4 Sensor 5, 5a, 5b Expansion / contraction amount command 6, 6a, 6b Drive voltage command 7 Case 8 Fixed body 9 Controller 10 Correction data 11 Interpolated value

Claims (5)

In a polymer actuator device comprising a polymer actuator, a driver for driving the polymer actuator, and a controller for controlling the driver,
A sensor for measuring the amount of expansion / contraction of the polymer actuator is provided, and a correction circuit for correcting the nonlinearity of the amount of expansion / contraction with respect to the driving voltage of the polymer actuator is provided between the controller and the driver. A polymer actuator device.   The polymer actuator according to claim 1, wherein a tip of the polymer actuator is fixed by a fixed body, and the sensor is attached to a casing together with the polymer actuator, and the sensor tip. apparatus. A polymer that includes a polymer actuator, a driver that drives the polymer actuator, and a controller that controls the driver, sends a drive command from the controller to the driver, and drives the polymer actuator In the driving method of the actuator device,
A sensor for measuring the amount of expansion / contraction of the polymer actuator is provided, the amount of expansion / contraction acquired from the sensor is fed back to the controller, and the polymer is provided by a correction circuit provided between the controller and the driver. A driving method for a polymer actuator device, wherein a driving voltage command is obtained by correcting an expansion / contraction amount with respect to a driving voltage of the actuator.   The non-linearity correction is performed by changing the drive voltage to the polymer actuator while changing the drive voltage from the minimum value to the maximum value, and the actual extension amount and drive acquired from the sensor at this time. 4. The method for driving a polymer actuator device according to claim 3, wherein voltages are compared and correction data is stored in a correction data storage device provided in the correction circuit.   The correction of the non-linearity of the polymer actuator is characterized in that a corrected driving voltage with respect to the expansion / contraction amount is obtained based on data obtained by interpolating correction data stored in the correction data storage device by a moving average method. The driving method of the polymer actuator device according to claim 4.

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